


Symbolism

by Katherine



Category: Valor Series - Tanya Huff
Genre: Alternate Ending, During Valor's Trial, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-08 16:55:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11650815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katherine/pseuds/Katherine
Summary: Kyster was seated with his side pressed to Durlin Vertic's front, as if braced, for all that they were on the ground.





	Symbolism

Kyster was seated with his side pressed to Durlin Vertic's front, as if braced, for all that they were on the ground. She, in turn, had her forelegs tight around Kyster. Werst had seen determination on more than one Polint face over the past few days. He had seen a lot, during the multiple-species, dual-sided escape. (Under the Gunny. Torin Kerr had let Durlin Vertic lead as officer, but it had still been the Gunny's determined, utterly improbable escape.) Werst recognised stubbornness in the durlin as well as the familiar, intraspecies signals from Kyster.

"The war's going to take some ending, kid," Werst told him. He didn't say, _are you sure you want to ride out the ending of it behind enemy lines._ These people were not the nameless Others now, nor were they exactly enemies any longer.

 

Werst shifted his leg as Ressk's toes curled around his ankle. From Krai to Krai, that was a subtle reassurance. They watched Kyster riding Vertic in the small crowd of Primacy members. Vertic was limping badly, but had insisted—not ordered, quite—on the arrangement. Any discomfort was less important, it seemed, than how she was presenting Kyster to her people. There was clearly some important symbolism in him being perched on her.

Bad foot compensated for, Kyster swayed with his chosen future like he would in a storm, holding himself to a dependable tree. Kyster, stubborn kid that he was, was Krai. Put a forest, or artificial facsimile thereof, or enough rope—or, apparently, the combat-straps of an officer who was a different species, and days before known as an enemy—in a Krai's grip, and he could ride out anything.


End file.
